How Norfolk is adding to the nation’s food with the Food Enterprise Park

As a county abundant with agricultural diversity, Norfolk is a magnet for innovative food businesses therefore it is no surprise that there is strong take up for occupancy at the Food Enterprise Park, a 100-acre development site to the west of Norwich within the greater Norwich Food Enterprise Zone.

The aims of the park are simple, to encourage and support food production, processing and agritech business through the colocation of commercial enterprises.

Brown&Co has been advising the landowner on fulfilling the potential of this 100-acre development site, the first 46 acres of which has all infrastructure in place to include a huge amount of electrical power, 30 MW of grid, with solar to come. It also benefits from a fast track planning regime via a Local Development Order (LDO) which means planning is already effectively in place for qualifying users, a massive benefit in terms of cost and time saving, that has really helped encourage occupiers to locate to the park.

Demand for space has resulted in only a couple of plots remaining available in the first phase. The site’s locational credentials are excellent, adjoining the A47, which is shortly due to be dualled and improved, with a new motorway style grade separated junction feeding almost directly into the site.

British vertical farming business Fischer Farms, a company which is revolutionising farming with an approach designed to produce food in a sustainable way with stacked, biosecure, climate controlled and fully automated systems, has built a large vertical farm on the site, one of the biggest in the world.

The park is also home to the regions first dedicated food grade innovation space, Broadland Food Innovation Centre which has been developed by Broadland District Council. The centre includes 13 food grade units, each offering the optimal environment for innovation and growth.

Another success story is Condimentum Limited, which has created a state-of-the-art mustard and mint processing facility. The business, formed by local farmers and growers, allows the iconic Colmans name to be retained in Norfolk through its parent company Unilever.

There is a real buzz around the FEP, and companies are excited to explore how they can be part of it. The benefits of co-locating and clustering with other sector specific, like-minded organisations is compelling. Having shovel ready plots with planning already in place is a great catalyst for growth.

Nick Dunn, Partner and Head of Commercial at Brown&Co

There is much more to come too. Following the most recent sale of a seven acre plot, the park will soon be home to a large-scale cutting edge wine processing facility.

Another important piece of the jigsaw is its proximity and links to the Norwich Research Park, which provides world class food and bioscience development through a number of world leading research institutions including the John Innes Centre, Quadram Institute, Sainsbury Laboratory, and Earlham Institute.

All this adds value to the nation’s food production and for Norfolk, it offers a solution to an age-old problem of how to keep production, manufacturing and processing of the food grown in the county, local.

To find out more, please click here or view the brochure here.

Contact Nick Dunn by calling 01603 598241 or 07977 121341.